baseballfandomcom-20200222-history
Luis Aparicio
Luis Ernesto Aparicio Montiel (born April 29, 1934 in Maracaibo, Zulia State, Venezuela) is a former shortstop in Major League Baseball and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. From 1956 through 1973, Aparicio played for the Chicago White Sox (1956-62, 1968-70), Baltimore Orioles (1963-67) and Boston Red Sox (1971-73). He batted and threw right handed. Playing career Aparicio came from a baseball family. His father, Luis Sr. was a notable shortstop in Venezuela and owned a Winter League team with Aparicio's uncle, Ernesto. Aparicio was heavily scouted by the Cleveland Indians, but Chicago White Sox GM Frank Lane, on the recommendation of fellow Venezuelan shortstop Chico Carrasquel, signed Aparicio for $5,000 down and $5,000 in first year salary. He played well in the minors and then led the American League in stolen bases in his debut year of 1956, winning both the ''MLB'' Rookie of the Year and ''The Sporting News'' Rookie of the Year awards. Frank Robinson of the Cincinnati Redlegs won the NL Rookie Awards - marking the first year that 2 eventual Hall of Famers were BBWAA Rookles of the Year. (Tom Seaver & Rod Carew in 1967 followed suit). Over the next decade, Aparicio set the standard for the spray-hitting, slick-fielding, speedy shortstop. He led the AL in stolen bases in nine consecutive seasons (1956-64) and won the Gold Glove Award nine times (1958-62, 1964, 1966, 1970). He was also a ten-time All-Star (1958-64, 1970-72) and a key player on the 1959 "Go-Go" White Sox that won the American League pennant that year. Aparicio was 2nd to teammate Nellie Fox in the 1959 MVP balloting. The White Sox were generally successful during his tenure, but when he showed up overweight and had an off year in 1962, the White Sox dealt him to the Baltimore Orioles the following season. He led the league in fielding percentage a record 8 consecutive years. Aparicio regained his form in Baltimore and was ninth in the MVP balloting in 1966 when he helped the Orioles reach the World Series, which they won. He returned to the White Sox for the 1968 season after being traded for Don Buford and had his best overall offensive season in 1970, hitting .312 and scoring 86 runs. He put in three more seasons with the Boston Red Sox before retiring for good. He was released by the Boston Red Sox in the spring 1974 (along with Orlando Cepeda) and retired when no other team made him a comparable salary offer. At his retirement, Aparicio was the all-time leader for most games played, assists and double plays by a MLB shortstop and the all-time leader for putouts and total chances by an AL baseball shortstop. Through the 2005 season, Aparicio holds the major league record of 2583 games played in the position. Amazingly, he never played in another position than shortstop. Luis Aparicio was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984 (elected with Harmon Killebrew and Don Drysdale), the first native of South America so honored. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. In 1999, The Sporting News did not include him on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, but Major League Baseball did list him as one of their 100 nominees for their All-Century Team. He was given the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at Game One of the 2005 World Series, the first World Series game to be played in Chicago by the Chicago White Sox since the 1959 World Series, when Aparicio had been the starting shortstop for the Sox. Landmarks bearing his family name There is a stadium in Maracaibo, Venezuela bearing his father's name. The full name of the stadium is Estadio Luis Aparicio El Grande (Stadium Luis Aparicio the Great) in honor to Luis Aparicio Montiel. There are also several streets and avenues bearing his name throughout Venezuela. In 2006 Aparicio had a life-sized bronze statue of himself unveiled at U.S. Cellular Field. YEAR TEAM AGE G AB R H 2B 3B HR HR% RBI BB SO SB CS AVG SLG OBA OPS 1956 White Sox 22 152 533 69 142 19 6 22 0.56 56 34 63 21 4 .266 .341 .311 .653 1957 White Sox 23 143 575 82 148 22 6 3 0.52 41 52 55 28 8 .257 .332 .317 .649 1958 White Sox 24 145 557 76 148 20 9 2 0.36 40 35 38 29 6 .266 .345 .309 .653 1959 White Sox 25 152 612 98 157 18 5 6 0.98 51 53 40 56 13 .257 .332 .316 .647 1960 White Sox 26 153 600 86 166 20 7 2 0.33 61 43 39 51 8 .277 .343 .323 .666 1961 White Sox 27 156 625 90 170 24 4 6 0.96 45 38 33 53 13 .272 .352 .313 .665 1962 White Sox 28 153 581 72 140 23 5 7 1.20 40 32 36 31 12 .241 .334 .280 .614 1963 Orioles 29 146 601 73 150 18 8 5 0.83 45 36 35 40 6 .250 .331 .291 .623 1964 Orioles 30 146 578 93 154 20 3 10 1.73 37 49 51 57 17 .266 .363 .324 .688 1965 Orioles 31 144 564 67 127 20 10 8 1.42 40 46 56 26 7 .225 .339 .286 .625 1966 Orioles 32 151 659 97 182 25 8 6 0.91 41 33 42 25 11 .276 .366 .311 .676 1967 Orioles 33 134 546 55 127 22 5 4 0.73 31 29 44 18 5 .233 .313 .270 .583 1968 White Sox 34 155 622 55 164 24 4 4 0.64 36 33 43 17 11 .264 .334 .302 .636 1969 White Sox 35 156 599 77 168 24 5 5 0.83 51 66 29 24 4 .280 .362 .352 .714 1970 White Sox 36 146 552 86 173 29 3 5 0.91 43 53 34 8 3 .313 .404 .372 .776 1971 Red Sox 37 125 491 56 114 23 0 4 0.81 45 35 43 6 4 .232 .303 .284 .587 1972 Red Sox 38 110 436 47 112 26 3 3 0.69 39 26 28 3 3 .257 .351 .299 .649 1973 Red Sox 39 132 499 56 135 17 1 0 0.00 49 43 33 13 1 .271 .309 .324 .633 TOTALS 2599 10230 1335 2677 394 92 103 0.81 791 736 742 506 136 .262 .343 .311 .653 LG AVERAGE 10250 1287 2624 410 71 271 2.64 1205 1059 1492 128 77 .256 .389 .327 .717 POS AVERAGE 10057 1189 2465 377 75 152 1.51 893 915 1404 186 87 .245 .343 .309 .652 YEAR TEAM RC RCAA RCAP OWP RC/G TB EBH ISO SEC BPA IBB HBP SAC SF GIDP OUTS PA POS 1956 White Sox 59 -21 -4 .357 3.80 182 28 .075 .171 .395 2 1 14 1 9 419 583 SS 1957 White Sox 65 -9 3 .433 3.86 191 31 .075 .200 .406 1 0 9 4 7 455 640 SS 1958 White Sox 63 -7 17 .447 3.92 192 31 .079 .183 .408 2 1 8 3 8 434 604 SS 1959 White Sox 71 -8 8 .444 3.86 203 29 .075 .232 .431 2 3 11 7 11 497 686 SS 1960 White Sox 74 -9 7 .440 4.16 206 29 .067 .210 .432 3 1 20 6 12 480 670 SS 1961 White Sox 73 -14 0 .413 4.04 220 34 .080 .205 .430 0 1 4 4 12 488 672 SS 1962 White Sox 54 -24 -13 .331 3.09 194 35 .093 .181 .380 1 1 4 4 11 472 622 SS 1963 Orioles 63 -8 0 .437 3.55 199 31 .082 .198 .405 2 2 6 6 10 479 651 SS 1964 Orioles 72 -8 -9 .448 4.17 210 33 .097 .251 .455 0 3 7 5 13 466 642 SS 1965 Orioles 57 -15 -9 .387 3.27 191 38 .113 .229 .403 0 3 14 2 11 471 629 SS 1966 Orioles 74 -3 6 .473 3.90 241 39 .090 .161 .401 2 1 12 2 10 512 707 SS 1967 Orioles 47 -13 -1 .385 2.86 171 31 .081 .158 .355 2 1 6 5 8 443 587 SS 1968 White Sox 61 -6 9 .453 3.39 208 32 .071 .133 .363 3 2 5 2 10 486 664 SS 1969 White Sox 81 -3 5 .477 4.72 217 34 .082 .225 .434 1 2 10 4 14 463 681 SS 1970 White Sox 85 12 24 .560 5.69 223 37 .091 .196 .444 1 1 5 5 11 403 616 SS 1971 Red Sox 43 -24 -6 .302 2.90 149 27 .071 .147 .340 0 2 9 4 7 401 541 SS 1972 Red Sox 45 -7 6 .428 3.52 153 32 .094 .154 .369 0 2 5 5 8 345 474 SS 1973 Red Sox 53 -13 8 .392 3.61 154 18 .038 .148 .359 1 0 12 7 12 396 561 SS TOTALS 1140 -180 51 .425 3.80 3504 569 .081 .189 .402 23 27 161 76 184 8110 11230 LG AVERAGE 1323 0 0 .500 4.40 3989 752 .133 .241 .430 90 68 90 79 238 8110 11546 POS AVERAGE 1090 -233 0 .406 3.63 3447 604 .098 .199 .387 59 53 144 68 219 8110 11237 League leadership rankings ; 1956 AL games 4th(tied) 152; singles 9th 114; bases stolen 1st 21; worst ops 6th .653; worst rcaa 8th -21; sacrifices 1st(tied) 14. ; 1957 AL at bats 8th 575; runs 10th(tied) 82; singles 7th 117; triples 6th(tied) 6; bases stolen 1st 28; caught stealing 5th(tied) 8; worst ops 4th .649; sacrifices 8th(tied) 9; plate appearances 9th 640; outs 6th 455. ; 1958 AL singles 8th(tied) 117; triples 2nd(tied) 9; bases stolen 1st 29; caught stealing 9th(tied) 6; worst ops 5th .653; rcap 9th(tied) 17; sacrifices 10th(tied) 8; outs 7th(tied) 434. ; 1959 AL games 5th 152; at bats 2nd 612; runs 6th(tied) 98; hits 8th 157; singles 4th 128; bases stolen 1st 56; caught stealing 1st(tied) 13; worst ops 3rd .647; sacrifices 5th(tied) 11; sacrifice flies 5th(tied) 7; plate appearances 2nd 686; outs 1st 497. ; 1960 AL games 2nd(tied) 153; at bats 2nd 600; runs 6th 86; hits 7th(tied) 166; singles 2nd 137; triples 3rd(tied) 7; bases stolen 1st 51; caught stealing 3rd(tied) 8; worst ops 6th .666; sacrifices 1st 20; sacrifice flies 9th(tied) 6; plate appearances 2nd(tied) 670; outs 1st 480. 1961 AL at bats 5th 625; hits 9th(tied) 170; singles 3rd 136; bases stolen 1st 53; caught stealing 1st 13; worst ops 5th .665; outs 6th 488. 1962 AL bases stolen 1st 31; caught stealing 1st 12; worst ops 1st .614; worst rcaa 4th(tied) -24; outs 9th(tied) 472. 1963 AL at bats 6th 601; singles 10th(tied) 119; triples 5th(tied) 8; bases stolen 1st 40; caught stealing 7th(tied) 6; worst ops 6th .623; outs 4th 479. 1964 AL runs 6th 93; singles 10th 121; bases stolen 1st 57; caught stealing 1st 17; outs 8th 466. 1965 AL triples 3rd 10; bases stolen 4th(tied) 26; caught stealing 8th(tied) 7; worst ops 5th .625; sacrifices 2nd 14; outs 7th 471. ; 1966 AL at bats 1st 659; runs 5th(tied) 97; hits 2nd(tied) 182; singles 1st 143; triples 4th(tied) 8; bases stolen 4th 25; caught stealing 4th(tied) 11; sacrifices 2nd 12; plate appearances 1st 707; outs 1st 512. ; 1967 AL bases stolen 7th 18; worst ops 2nd .583; outs 8th 443. ; 1968 AL at bats 3rd 622; hits 3rd(tied) 164; singles 2nd 132; caught stealing 7th(tied) 11; plate appearances 7th(tied) 664; outs 4th 486. ; 1969 AL at bats 8th 599; hits 7th(tied) 168; singles 3rd 134; triples 9th(tied) 5; bases stolen 9th 24; sacrifices 5th(tied) 10; plate appearances 9th 681. ; 1970 AL hits 10th 173; singles 7th(tied) 136; average 4th .313. ; 1971 AL worst ops 3rd .587; worst rcaa 1st(tied) -24. ; 1973 AL worst ops 9th .633; sacrifices 4th(tied) 12; sacrifice flies 2nd(tied) 7. See also *Magazine covers * List of Gold Glove middle infield duos *List of players from Venezuela in Major League Baseball External links *Baseball Hall of Fame * Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis Aparicio, Luis